Pats utilize rarely used transition tag on Dugger

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — New England Patriots safety Kyle Dugger on Tuesday became just the sixth NFL player in the last 15 years to receive the transition tag.

The transition tag is for $13.8 million, which is the average of the top 10 salaries for safeties. Only five other players had received the transition tag in the past 15 years, according to ESPN Stats & Information, with none of them being safeties.

Dugger can still sign an offer sheet with another team, and the Patriots would have an opportunity to match the offer. If the Patriots decline to match any offer, they would not receive any draft-pick compensation.

“Kyle is a talented player with a strong work ethic who has improved every year and been extremely productive since joining our team in 2020,” Patriots coach Coach Jerod Mayo said Tuesday. “We value players with high character and chose to use the transition designation to give both sides more time to try to reach a long-term agreement, which is our goal with Kyle.”

The transition tag isn’t utilized as often as the franchise tag, which pays an average of the top five players at a position. The last NFL player to receive the transition tag was running back Kenyan Drake with the Arizona Cardinals in 2020.

Patriots director of scouting Eliot Wolf, who has final personnel authority, said last week at the NFL scouting combine that the team “definitely” wanted to retain Dugger. The tag provides the team more leverage in future contract talks, which to this point haven’t resulted in an extension.

Because teams can only use one franchise or transition tag per offseason, the decision to assign the transition tag to Dugger means that one of the Patriots’ other top free agents, offensive lineman Mike Onwenu, will not receive a tag.

The 6-foot-2, 222-pound Dugger entered the NFL with the Patriots as a 2020 second-round pick and has played in 61 regular-season games, with 52 starts. He was the team’s highest draft pick that year, at No. 37, after New England traded out of the first round.

Dugger, 27, was an older rookie coming out of Division II Lenoir-Rhyne and quickly proved he belonged in the NFL, in part because of his sure tackling and hard-hitting approach.

In 2023, Dugger totaled a career-high 109 tackles while tying for the team lead with two interceptions. He played 98% of the defensive snaps, more than any defender, which was another reflection of his value to the team as he took on new responsibilities to help fill the void after the retirement of longtime safety Devin McCourty.

“I would say last year going into the season there were some questions about: ‘Can he communicate?’ He squashed all of that,” Mayo said last week at the combine. “He did a fantastic job in his new role, without having Devin there. So you definitely want those pieces to stay.”

In 2022, Dugger had become the first Patriots defender since 1970 to score three touchdowns in a season.

Former Patriots coach Bill Belichick appreciated Dugger’s versatility, and while Dugger’s ideal fit is closer to the line of scrimmage in a multiple scheme, the team didn’t hesitate to play him in the deep part of the field more in 2023 as a complement to veteran safety Jabrill Peppers.

He has 343 tackles and nine interceptions in his career.